Thursday, October 16, 2008

* The life blood of many companies is to have current market research at their fingertips in order to keep tabs on their markets and competitors

* To this end they are always looking to get a wide range of people's opinions from all walks of life - in fact they are so desperate for this that they are willing to pay for it.

* This is why getting paid for providing your opinion in the form of marketing surveys is such big business and is a totally viable way to make some extra cash or even a steady income.

* How much can I make? The amount you can make obviously depends on how many market research surveys you complete - they generally pay between $5 and $75 for each survey completed - so work it out for yourself, the earning potential is fairly significant.

Participating in focus groups can net you $150 an hour and phone surveys at $120 an hour.

* Will I have enough surveys to do? The trick therefore is to be able to get a constant supply of surveys to make it worth your while. So even if you are a survey recipient with some of the biggest market research companies you still may not have enough volume to be able to make enough money.

* How to ensure I get enough surveys? The best way to make sure you have enough surveys is to sign up with a legitimate survey company that makes it it's business to provide it's subscribers with a constant flow of surveys, focus groups, shopping assignments, etc.

* Where to find a legitimate Survey Company? Check out Survey Scout - they have been around for ages and have a good reputation in this industry that has seen many scams.

...or, Maximum Paid Surveys who have an excellent reputation in providing enough quality surveys to make decent money from.

In conclusion this is not only a legitimate way to make money online, you can start immediately without needing any sort of internet expertise or experience.

It's worth mentioning this as many Adsense publishers don't believe that their website is worth more than a few Adsense dollars a month &, whats more, they are satisfied with that.

This is a load of rubbish because the more you believe & want to earn big money from Adsense the better chance you have of achieving this goal.

Just remember that the amount of your effort & commitment to your goals is directly proportional to what you get out - little input = little earnings.

* Adsense Positioning

If your ads are hidden away & out of site its unlikely that your site visitors will be clicking on them which means that you will be earning zero Adsense income.

Generally you should ensure that you have some ads displaying above the fold, ie on your page where your site visitor won't have to scroll down to see them.

However it's useful to have a skyscraper down one of the sides as well - also check out Google's heat map which gives a good insight into the most popular ad placement positioning.

* Your Website Niche

You need to target a niche that is both popular & not too competitive - difficult to achieve this, I know, but try & get the right balance.

If your topic is on something like the mating habits of the north sea clam I don't think you will have many site visitors, let alone any advertisers for Google to serve up Adsense ads on this topic.

The above are just 3 tips that can influence your Adsense earning potential however there is still a lot you need to know to make serious money with AdSense.

And if you don't have that information, you're just throwing money away by not maximizing your Adsense earning potential with new or existing sites.

A word of caution - whilst Adsense is an easy way for website owners and bloggers to make easy money do not bite the hand that feeds.

Be sure to read and fully understand the Adsense ToS (Terms of Service) because Google is ruthless to those who contravene their terms and usually banish them to finding a far less easy way to earning money online - once you've had your account disabled there is no way back.

Google's sophisticated systems will know whether you've employed some dodgy system to click your ads (for example) so do not try and cheat - Google will always catch those who think they can beat the system and summarily close their accounts - which is understandable as Google doesn't want their advertisers to be paying for fraudulent clicks.

For instance if you are making $15,00 a day you could practically double that (without increasing your traffic) by implementing a few simple strategies which are revealed in Joel Comm's Adsense Secrets book.

Joel Comm is generally accepted as the internet's leading authority on Adsense so if you want to claim your piece of the $3.2 billion Dollar Google Cash Machine you should listen to what Joel has to say.

Without giving too much away by implemeting some of his tips and tricks some publishers increased their daily revenue stream by 1600% - they went from $30 a day to over $500 a day - how's that for a real impact on Adsense earnings.

Every chapter of his ebook is overflowing with practical advice, screen-shots of actual web pages and a rare insight into the nuts-and-bolts that drive a successful AdSense business.

So if you are just starting out with Adsense or have been an Adsense publisher for years you will be able to significantly maximize and increase your Adsense income by implementing the strategies in Joel's latest book - Adsense Secrets 4 - and what's more is that it is currently selling for just $9.95 www.internetbusiness.co.za/adsense-tips.htm

The economy is sputtering, but Google Inc.'s profits are still accelerating at a rate that suggests the Internet search leader can remain a marketing magnet even when advertisers and consumers aren't in a spending mood.

ADVERTISEMENTGoogle provided the latest evidence of its moneymaking prowess late Thursday with the announcement of a 26 percent increase in third-quarter profits that surpassed analysts' forecasts.

The performance drew a sigh of relief from investors, who had become convinced that Google will suffer along with just about everyone else as the U.S. economy sinks into what is widely expected to be the deepest recession in a quarter-century.

Google shares surged $36.97, or 10.5 percent, in Thursday's extending trading after finishing the regular session at $353.02, up $13.85. It marked a dramatic change in sentiment from earlier Thursday as a cascading wave of pessimism pounded Google's stock price to a three-year low of $309.44.

"People suddenly realized that if there a stock you are going to own through this uncertainty, (Google) is the one," said Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis.

But not even Google feels immune to the worst financial crisis to grip the world since the U.S. stock market crashed in 1929.

Things are looking grim enough to prompt Google -- renowned for its free-spending ways -- to hunker down and start scrimping more than it has in the past.

"This may turn out to be the quarter (Google) grew up and proved it can control expenses," Gillis said.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt also offered some of his most sober commentary yet about the state of the economy. "We're all sort of in uncharted territory," Schmidt told analysts during a Thursday conference call.

Google nimbly navigated through the shoals in the third quarter, earning $1.35 billion, or $4.24 per share. That compared to net income of $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per share, at the same time last year.

Excluding costs for employee stock compensation, Google said it would have made $4.92 per share. That figure surpassed the average estimate of $4.75 per share among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Google executives have maintained that the company can still thrive because its technology does a better job of finding customers at a lower cost to advertisers than traditional marketing campaigns. Those factors, Google argues, means it could receive an even bigger slice of advertising budgets in a crumbling economy.

What's more, consumers scrambling to make ends meet may be more likely to use the Internet to hunt for bargains -- a quest that could increase the Google search requests that spit out ads.

Schmidt, though, acknowledged that even the Internet's most profitable company is facing a more daunting challenge now than when the third quarter began.

"It is pretty clear the economic situation today globally is worse than people were predicting a month ago," he said during the conference call. He and other Google executives dodged questions about how ad sales have fared as the economic outlook darkened during the past month.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin predicted the company will emerge from the turmoil even stronger. "My favorite time to manage is during a bust," Brin said in a Thursday interview with The Associated Press. "It brings more clarity about what your customers need and what your priorities should be."

Keeping a closer eye on expenses is a change for Google, which takes pride in spending heavily to treat its employees to free meals and expand the capacity of its data centers that run its search engine, e-mail and other products.

While Google plans to continue feeding its employees for free, the company already has shortened the operating hours of some cafes and, in some instances, is offering two entrees instead of three, Brin said. The company also is reducing the number of contractors it uses.

In another indication of a tightening budget, Google's capital expenditures in the third quarter totaled $452 million, an 18 percent decrease from last year.

That's the lowest amount Google has spent on capital expenditures since the fourth quarter of 2006. Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette attributed the sharp decline to the company's fluctuating needs for additional computers, and said spending in that area could rise again.

Google clearly is managing its payroll more carefully. The company hired another 519 workers during the quarter, down from an increase of 2,130 employees at the same time last year. The company now has 20,123 employees.

Even as it curbs its costs, Google's bank account is swelling. The company ended September with $14.4 billion in cash, up from $12.7 billion in June.

Google also is vying to become an even more dominant force on the Internet by selling ads on behalf of its slumping rival, Yahoo Inc. The alliance has been delayed by an U.S. Justice Department investigation into whether the partnership would undercut competition in the Internet advertising market. Schmidt said he hopes to resolve the fate of the Yahoo deal soon.http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081017/earns_google.html